Recurrence and progression of periodontitis and methods of management in long-term care: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Aim: To systematically review the literature to evaluate the recurrence of disease of people in long-term supportive periodontal care (SPC), previously treated for periodontitis, and determine the effect of different methods of managing recurrence. The review focused on stage IV periodontitis. Materials and methods: An electronic search was conducted (until May 2020) for prospective clinical trials. Tooth loss was the primary outcome. Results: Twenty-four publications were retrieved to address recurrence of disease in long-term SPC. Eight studies were included in the meta-analyses for tooth loss, and three studies for disease progression/recurrence (clinical attachment level [CAL] loss ≥2 mm). For patients in SPC of 5–20 years, prevalence of losing more than one tooth was 9.6% (95% confidence interval [CI] 5%–14%), while experiencing more than one site of CAL loss ≥2 mm was 24.8% (95% CI 11%–38%). Six studies informed on the effect of different methods of managing recurrence, with no clear evidence of superiority between methods. No data was found specifically for stage IV periodontitis. Conclusions: A small proportion of patients with stage III/IV periodontitis will experience tooth loss in long-term SPC (tendency for greater prevalence with time). Regular SPC appears to be important for reduction of tooth loss. No superior method to manage disease recurrence was found

Cooling on Photovoltaic Panel Using Forced Air Convection Induced by DC Fan

Photovoltaic (PV) panel is the heart of solar system generally has a low energy conversion efficiency available in the market. PV panel temperature control is the main key to keeping the PV panel operate efficiently. This paper presented the great influenced of the cooling system in reduced PV panel temperature. A cooling system has been developed based on forced convection induced by DC fan as cooling mechanism. DC fan was attached at the back side of PV panel will extract the heat energy distributed and cool down the PV panel. The working operation of DC fan controlled by PIC18F4550 microcontroller which depending on the average value of PV panel temperature. Experiments were performed with and without cooling mechanism attached at the backside PV panel. The whole PV system was subsequently evaluated in outdoor weather conditions. As a result, it is concluded that there is an optimum number of DC fans required as cooling mechanism in producing efficient electrical output from a PV panel. The study clearly shows how cooling mechanism improves the performance of PV panel at the hot climatic weather. In short, the reduction of PV panel temperature is very important to keep its performance operated efficiently

Surgical treatment of the residual periodontal pocket

The ultimate goal of periodontal therapy is to prevent further disease progression in order to reduce the risk of tooth loss. This objective can be achieved through a number of therapeutic modalities comprising both the nonsurgical and surgical phases of periodontal therapy. Nonsurgical periodontal treatment has been shown to control periodontal infection and to arrest progression of the disease in a significant number of cases. However, despite completion of nonsurgical treatment, a number of periodontal pockets, defined as 'residual', often remain. The presence of residual pockets may jeopardize tooth survival and be a risk factor of further disease progression, and ultimately tooth loss. Therefore, the aim of this review is to analyze the knowledge available on the indications for and the performance of periodontal surgical treatment of residual pockets in terms of 'traditional' (clinical, microbiological), patient-based and systemic health outcomes

Has the quality of reporting in Periodontology changed in 14 years? A systematic review

Quality of reporting randomised controlled trials in periodontology has been poor. Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines and an extension for non-pharmacologic trials (CONSORT–NPE), were introduced to aid in improving this. Aims: Assess the quality of reporting in periodontology, changes over the last 14 years, and adherence to CONSORT–NPE. Methods: RCTs in humans, published in three periodontal journals, from 2013-2015 were included. Search was conducted through Medline, Embase and hand searching. Results: 173 full text articles included. Two reviewers screened for reporting quality (kappa=0.69, 95%CI 0.60-0.76). 84% of studies (n=145) described randomisation methods, 74% (n=128) highlighted examiner blinding, and 87% (n=151) accounted for patients at study conclusion. Patient and caregiver blinding was addressed in 50% (n=70) and 50% (n=27) of studies, respectively. 64% (n=110) described adequate allocation concealment. Compared with Montenegro et al. 2002, improvements seen in describing randomisation (2002,16.5%; 2016,84%), allocation concealment (2002,6.5%; 2016,64%), caregiver masking (2002,17%; 2015,50%). CONSORT-NPE; 62% (n=107) had detailed explanations of all treatments, 88% (n=152) lacked protocols for adherence of caregivers’ to an intervention. Only 17% (n=29) described caregivers’ expertise and case volume. Conclusions: Substantial improvements have occurred. Attention is required for statistical analysis of patient losses and masking. CONSORT-NPE aspects were poorly reported

Quantification of vaporized targeted nanodroplets using high-frame-rate ultrasound and optics

Owing to their ability to efficiently deliver biological cargo and sense the intracellular milieu, vertical arrays of high aspect ratio nanostructures, known as nanoneedles,are being developed as minimally invasive tools for cell manipulation. However, little is known of the mechanisms of cargo transfer across the cell membrane-nanoneedle interface. Particularly,the contributions of membrane piercing, modulation of membrane permeability and endocytosis to cargo transfer remain largelyunexplored. Here, combining state-of-the-art electron and scanning ion conductance microscopy with molecular biology techniques, we show that porous silicon nanoneedle arrays concurrently stimulate independent endocytic pathways which contribute to enhanced biomolecule delivery into human mesenchymal stem cells. Electron microscopy of the cell membrane at nanoneedle sites shows an intact lipid bilayer, accompanied by an accumulation of clathrin-coated pits and caveolae. Nanoneedles enhance the internalisation of biomolecular markers of endocytosis, highlighting the concurrent activation of caveolae-and clathrin-mediated endocytosis, alongside macropinocytosis. These events contribute to the nanoneedle-mediated delivery (nanoinjection) of nucleic acids into human stem cells, which distribute across the cytosol and the endolysosomal system. This data extends the understanding of how nanoneedles modulate biological processes to mediate interaction with the intracellular space, providing indications for the rational design of improved cell-manipulation technologies

Assessing knowledge of human papillomavirus and collecting data on sexual behavior: computer assisted telephone versus face to face interviews

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Education campaigns seeking to raise awareness of human papillomavirus (HPV) and promoting HPV vaccination depend on accurate surveys of public awareness and knowledge of HPV and related sexual behavior. However, the most recent population-based studies have relied largely on computer-assisted telephone interviews (CATI) as opposed to face to face interviews (FTFI). It is currently unknown how these survey modes differ, and in particular whether they attract similar demographics and therefore lead to similar overall findings.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A comprehensive survey of HPV awareness and knowledge, including sexual behavior, was conducted among 3,045 Singaporean men and women, half of whom participated via CATI, the other half via FTFI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Overall levels of awareness and knowledge of HPV differed between CATI and FTFI, attributable in part to demographic variations between these survey modes. Although disclosure of sexual behavior was greater when using CATI, few differences between survey modes were found in the actual information disclosed.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Although CATI is a cheaper, faster alternative to FTFI and people appear more willing to provide information about sexual behavior when surveyed using CATI, thorough assessments of HPV awareness and knowledge depend on multiple survey modes.</p

Robust beamforming and user clustering for guaranteed fairness in downlink NOMA with partial feedback

In this paper, a downlink multiuser non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) with full and partial channel state information (CSI) feedback is considered. We investigate beam design and user clustering from the throughput-fairness trade-off perspective. To enhance this trade-off, two proportional fairness (PF) based scheduling algorithms are proposed, each has two stages. The first algorithm is based on integrating the maximum product of effective channel gains and the maximum signal to interference ratio with the PF principle (PF-MPECG-SIR), to select the strong users in the first stage and the weak users in the second stage. This algorithm is designed to maximize the throughput with moderate fairness enhancement. Whereas, in the second algorithm, the MPECG and the maximum correlation are combined within the PF selection criterion (PF-MPECG-CORR) in order to maximize the fairness with a slight degradation in the total throughput. In addition, we present an optimal power allocation that can achieve a high data rate for the overall system without sacrificing the sum-rate of weak users under full and partial CSI. Simulation results show that the proposed PF-MPECG-CORR can significantly improve the fairness up to 50.82% and 44.90% with only 0.42% and 1.13% degradation in the total throughput, for full and partial CSI, respectively. All these performance gains are achieved without increasing the computational complexity